Marked for Askhat Logvinenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Mar 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Mar 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Mar 2035
Still nobody has beaten Atyrau
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Paschal Durugbor falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad19 Mar 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rinat Akhmetov and Atyrau agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match17 Mar 2035
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Ordabasy will be the happier side with the point.
Market19 Mar 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mohammed Tahiri’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Sep 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Paschal Durugbor falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Apr 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atyrau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match22 Apr 2034
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Mario Rabiu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market24 Apr 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abylaikhan Zhūmabek signs something — a contract at Atyrau or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Mar 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Mario Rabiu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings13 Mar 2034
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match11 Mar 2034
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Shakhter came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.